Unveiled at the footnote of the GPU Technology Conference 2009, by none other than NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA's Fermi architecture looks promising, at least in the field of GPGPU, which was extensively discussed upon in his address. The first reference board based on NVIDIA's newest 'GT300' GPU is a Tesla HPC processor card, which quickly became the face of the Fermi architecture. Singapore HardwareZone, and PCPop caught some of the first closeup pictures of the Tesla accelerator, and the GPU's BGA itself. Decked in a dash of chrome, the Tesla HPC processor card isn't particularly long, instead a great deal of compacting by its designers is evident. It draws power from one 8-pin, and 6-pin PCI-E power connectors, which aren't located next to each other. The cooler's blower also draws air from openings in the PCB, and a backplate further cools the GPU (and possibly other components located) from behind. From the looks of it, the GPU package itself isn't larger than that of the GT200 or its predecessor, the G80. Looks like NVIDIA is ready with a working prototype against all odds, after all, doesn't it? Not quite. On close inspection of the PCB, it doesn't look like a working sample. Components that are expected to have pins protruding soldered on the other side, don't have them, and the PCB seems to be abruptly ending. Perhaps it's only a dummy made to display at GTC, and give an indication of how the card ends up looking like. In other words, it doesn't look like NVIDIA has a working prototype/sample of the card they intended to have displayed the other day.

Why do I get a feeling nVidia has forgotten about us PC gamers? nothing but Tesla news coming from their mouths... c'mon nVidia, we are the ones who put you in the position you're at now, don't ignore us... :shadedshu

for me it looks classy and remember they have quadro/cuda/normal models, and yes they have us in mind, they all will be the same but the cuda ones will have up to 8 Gbs of ram and the consumer models will have up to 2, on another thought that pin placement kind of sucks why have on on the side and the other on the back?

if my memory serves me well there have been other teslas/quadro cards that had chrome finish, but man i would love to have one of those in my rig

Edit: @15th Warlock: according to the site and a pic thats posted there "NVIDIA CEO and Co-Founder, Jen-Hsun Hunag proudly showing off the new GT300 based graphics card whose architecture is codenamed Fermi and will be the base for all new GeForce, Quadro and Tesla class products coming in the near future." its going to be the base of all the new card

Indeed it is a non-functional / dummy, used only to show off what the final product should look like. That's one reason why NVIDIA did not publish any press pictures of that card in its PR material, only a low-def video of Huang calling it "a puppy based on the Fermi architecture".

Think of it as one of those dummies you find at mobile phone stores, of unreleased phones, etc.

I like the look of the heatsink, the chrome looks really sexy, too bad it will be covered up by stickers by most manufacturers, or probably not even make it to the final product...

Clearly this isn't a working product, the SLI connector is blocked by the backplate, and the PCI-E power connectors don't line up with the spot on the actual board.

And I pray to God that they don't actually put the PCI-E Power connectors in those locations. It is stupid to have an 8-pin on the back, and another 6-pin on the side like that. Put them both on the same side! That is the most retarded thing I've ever seen...

The source is real, but this just shows that nVidia does not even have a working sample to show.:shadedshu

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Or at least they don't have a working sample that looks good enough to show. I'm willing to bet they have at least a few working samples, but I bet they look like ass. Refining the looks is one of the last steps in the processes, and we are a while away from seeing a finished product hit the market.

Why do I get a feeling nVidia has forgotten about us PC gamers? nothing but Tesla news coming from their mouths... c'mon nVidia, we are the ones who put you in the position you're at now, don't ignore us... :shadedshu

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I think they know their cards will compete with the Cypress but they want to grab a broader market. They want gamers to Quattro users to all have 1 card. Is it the smartest strategy...Time will tell

@zubasa: considering they have a december relase window, they better make miracles for this to happen if all the rumors are true. For me i just need some bench and price and im sold.

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You shouldn't call veterans here with 5000+ posts here "fanboys". It shows just how little you know with your outstanding 17 total posts and joining this community for a whole month.

I'm really looking forward to what Nvidia has to offer in this generation. I do agree that this is a pathetic PR attempt to make nvidia FANBOYS drool over something that doesn't have any official specs to speak about.

And I pray to God that they don't actually put the PCI-E Power connectors in those locations. It is stupid to have an 8-pin on the back, and another 6-pin on the side like that. Put them both on the same side! That is the most retarded thing I've ever seen...

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I didn't even notice the 6-pin, I thought it was only going to use one 8-pin connector and give you the option of running the cable on the front or side of the card. Now that I see that way it does look retarded.
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I like the shiny look of the cooler , they should put the shiny part on top of the card so that it reflects off your sweet hardware.

You shouldn't call veterans here with 5000+ posts here "fanboys". It shows just how little you know with your outstanding 17 total posts and joining this community for a whole month.

I'm really looking forward to what Nvidia has to offer in this generation. I do agree that this is a pathetic PR attempt to make nvidia FANBOYS drool over something that doesn't have any official specs to speak about.

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That's exactly right.
Onderon, learn to spam like them before calling them fanboys.